Starting Primary School: Skills to Encourage

If your child’s starting primary school for the first time in September, you may be questioning how prepared they are. There’s been a lot of talk about ‘school readiness’, especially since the release of the agreed list of suggested skills from the Starting Reception coalition and the Department of Education’s recent focus on the area but what does it really mean?

In this blog, we’ll look at some specific skills that it’s generally accepted that a new starter will need. And give you some helpful tips to encourage your child to develop these skills over the next few weeks. The skills fall into the following areas:

1. Changing clothes and shoes
2. Recognising their name
3. Sharing and joining in
4. Being physically able and following instructions
5. Using the toilet and washing their hands
6. Knowing basic numbers, letters and sounds
7. Using cutlery and holding a pen
8. Following healthy routines

1. Changing clothes and shoes

Your child will need to put on and take off their coats and change for P.E. numerous times at school, and it’s surprising how long such seemingly simple tasks can take if the children are unable to cope alone.

Practise doing up and undoing zips, buttons and poppers when your child gets up, goes out and gets ready for bed, and they’ll soon improve. You could even add a time element! Give them five minutes to be fully dressed to spur them into action. Keep it simple too: Velcro is so much easier than laces for little fingers, and zips much less fiddly than buttons.

2. Recognising their name

Being able to recognise their own name will make things a lot simpler for your child. It will help them understand where to put their coat, which drawer is theirs, and even help them identify their cardigan from their friends’ after P.E.

Again, work on this at home. Your child may already have items with their name on for nursery that you can use to familiarise them with the shapes and sounds involved. The clearer the font, the better: intricate and flowery lettering should be avoided.

3. Sharing and joining in

Sharing, joining in and taking turns are skills that are invaluable in the classroom, and help it run smoothly and fairly. This could mean playing nicely with toys or engaging in singing nursery rhymes as a group.

With toys, encourage your child to ask, “Can I have a go next?” on playdates and teach them to give someone else a turn once they’ve played with a toy for a while. Encourage them to listen, and hear, what others are saying too, by asking questions about conversations and people’s feelings.

4. Being physically able and following instructions

Your child needs to be physically able and able to follow any instructions given in the classroom, so that they can participate in lessons fully. They should be used to walking up and down steps, climbing, running, jumping, catching (some of the time) and doing an assortment of puzzles and craft activities.

Get your child used to following instructions at home by involving them in jobs like tidying up. Encourage them to give you their full attention by asking them to use their ‘listening ears’ and help them with the task at first if needed.

5. Going to the toilet and washing their hands

It’s ideal if all children can go to the toilet and wash their hands afterwards at school, so get your child used to doing these things for themselves if possible. Teachers will understand that children develop at different rates, and that not all children will have mastered toileting, so if your child does struggle, don’t worry. Just let the teachers know that it is something your child doesn’t always manage to get right, and make sure you pop some extra pants into their bag in case of accidents, so the teachers don’t have to go hunting spares out.

Make sure your child knows too that things can sometimes go wrong, even if they can go to the toilet well on their own, so that they are not afraid to ask for help should they need it.

6. Basic numbers, letters and sounds

Whilst children aren’t expected to have significant skills in these areas, it’s great if they have a grasp of some of the basic sounds and letters of the alphabet, even if it’s just those in their name and numbers up to 10.

There are lots of games, apps and programmes to help them learn these, such as Alphablocks and Numberblocks on CBeebies and Busy Things. Numbers and letters can be found everywhere in everyday life though, so use these too. You can count the number of games in the toy box, for example, spot letters they know on signs on the way to the shops, and enjoy rhyming songs and games together to help them recognise the different sounds.

7. Using cutlery and holding a pen

Finally, children should have sufficiently honed fine motor skills to hold a fork, spoon and pencil in some fashion and drink from an open cup. At this stage, cutting up is not a skill you need to worry about. The dinner-time supervisors will help them with that. The same goes for holding a pen: if they have the basic idea, the teachers will help them develop the correct tripod grip.

Practise using cutlery at home, even if it’s just a spoon, and encourage your child to spend time off the screen, so that they develop their fine motor skills, whether that be colouring-in or playing with toys like Lego or Aquabeads.

8. Following healthy routines

Healthy routines should be in place by the time children start school. The obvious ones are the bedtime and morning routines that ensure children are well-rested and ready for the day of learning ahead, but limiting screen time, a healthy diet and good toothbrushing habits are also important.

More starting school support…

Think your little one is on the right track? You may also like to read our Starting School Made Simple blog, which includes a free school-ready activity pack.

In addition to the skills mentioned above, there are also certain behaviours that link to a child’s emotional and social maturity, which indicate that a child is ready for school. These behaviours are covered in our next blog Is Your Child Ready for School, Emotionally and Socially?

This blog is the second in our ‘Starting School’ series, which consists of 5 blogs in total. Read the others here: Starting School: Hints and Tips, Is Your Child Ready for School, Emotionally and Socially?, Getting Ready for School: A Parent’s Guide and Your First Day at School Checklist.

NOTE: Please remember that this blog post is only a guide. We know children naturally progress at different rates so will start school with a wide range of experiences and abilities. If you know or suspect your child has special educational needs (SEND), developmental differences or delays, some of these skills mentioned above may not be achievable. If this is the case, please make your child’s new teacher aware. Summer-born children and children who speak English as an additional language may also need more support.

We hope our “Starting Primary School: Skills to Encourage” blog has been useful! Please do let us know what you think in the comments and if you have any further ideas, we’d love you to share them with us too!

This blog was reviewed and updated in July 2025.